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People Describe The Weirdest Side Effect They've Ever Experienced From Medication

Now that is a surprise.

People Describe The Weirdest Side Effect They've Ever Experienced From Medication
Image by Ryan McGuire from Pixabay

You can't play with medications. We all seem to run fast and loose with some pills now and again. Not smart. Before we ingest anything, we need to do some research. Even if it's prescribed. Side effects are a real issue. You can take one blue pill and end up naked selling flowers on I-95. And that could net you some decent coin, but you should make that decision not under the influence.

Redditor u/BorniteWing wanted to discuss all the times meds has made us a bit loopy by asking... What is the weirdest side effect you've had from a medication?

I have a severe allergy to the antibiotic Levaquin. Wanna know how I learned this tidbit? From a near death experience. That's right I was given this medical marvel as a way to clear up... something. Twenty minutes after I ingested it, cut to me, being stabbed with an Epipen. Be ready people. Don't swallow everything.

Yuck

basketball wives smell GIF by VH1Giphy

I dreaded going to the bathroom because my pee smelled terrible.

Tarkus_Edge

Lofty

Zoloft caused me to have absolutely freakish yawning. ALL the time yawning. And HUGE yawns that actually hurt my jaws and the corners of my lips. I stopped taking it and informed my doc. Who then told me it can't cause that. Oh well. A year or two later I tried Zoloft again and it started up within two days.

And well taking Ambien resulted in me waking up in the front yard completely naked. Not going to be taking that again anytime soon. Haha.

rebel1031

Sleep Please...

I started taking some Trazodone for pretty relentless insomnia following trauma, and it started affecting my memory! I was word searching like crazy and could not remember words for various things. Scary as a young ish person.

jaonan

I also take that sleep medication for severe insomnia and yeah it definitely is affecting my memory too... also I occasionally have mild hallucinations, but that coincided with an increase in my zoloft soooo not sure which one is causing that.

HermesCat

Pooped

poop GIFGiphy

I had an antibiotic once that gave me uncontrollable diarrhea. I don't think I left the bathroom all day, because I would have a 10 second warning (at best) that I was about to have explosive diarrhea. Even without eating anything, my body still found something to propel out of me.

OneFingerIn

ZAP

Brain zaps.

VeganFinderFinder

Describing it to someone who doesn't understand makes me feel like I'm making something up, too. How do you tell someone you feel like your brain is being shocked by static electricity? Crap is the worst.

VeganFinderFinder

See there, healing comes with consequence. The consequence maybe mild, but they're there. Now, a little cramping and poop aren't a big deal, that much, but you want to be prepared.

Damn Keflex

I was prescribed Keflex as a teen. Took it on an empty stomach, vomited. My Mom called the doctors office and they said, oh you have to take it with food. So she stopped at McDonald's and got me a chicken sandwich. I ate the sandwich, took another Keflex and vomited everywhere. I couldn't eat McDonald's chicken sandwiches for ten years. I just say I'm allergic now, easier than putting up with that, and no other antibiotics have ever caused me any issues.

mst3k_42

Nightmares

Melatonin gives me incredibly weird dreams and I'm pretty sure I start chewing on my tongue in my sleep because it hurts the next day.

Jolkien-RR-Tolkien

I assumed melatonin wouldn't do anything. But to my surprise it actually works for me. Sometimes it would take hours to fall asleep but something about it helps me fall asleep pretty quickly. Dreams are pretty normal, which is to say I can never even remember them.

Gonewild_Verifier

Near Death

death GIFGiphy

Amoxicillin is a no no for me to had a really bad reaction nearly killed me so doctors no longer prescribe and of the cillin family.

zeliaastra

Ups and Downs...

I had an awesome one! Going through the roller coaster hell of medications to treat depression, I started REALLY liking triscuits. Also buying those big shredded wheat flavorless biscuits someone eats for breakfast. I was up to 3 boxes of triscuits and one of the big shredded wheat brillo pads a day when I mentioned this to my psychiatrist, who said one of the possible side effects of that medication was craving wheat. And how.

scrubjays

Bad Burn

Scott Aukerman Tattoo GIFGiphy

Was in antibiotics for a gnarly sty (Doxycycline). Didn't help my sty at all. Now I get sun burns realllllly easy. I'm latin, so I never used to burn before. I regret taking them sooo much.

spicegrl17

Ghosts

I was shot back in the '70's, it tore up my shoulder. They shot me full of pain killer (to cut down on my screaming I imagine). I never lost consciousness, but I could see ghosts of people who had died in the hospital, or whose bodies where brought to the hospital. I knew they were ghosts, because the nurses walked right through them. They (the ghosts) told me all sort of important things, none of which I could remember later.

David-Diron

Labor

I had an IUD insertion booked and because at the time, I've never been pregnant or had kids, they wanted to open the cervix with picotin.

Its also used to induce labor. They told me that I'll have mild cramps. I insert the pill and go to my appointment.

By the time I got there, my contractions were in waves and I had the absolute primal need to bear down. I couldn't sit, I couldn't stand. Only squatting felt normal. I was shaking. Your body kinda freezes up like a cat held up by its scruff. You're just riding on a wave of tension and pressure.

So now I'm a few weeks from delivery. That moment was over 5 years ago and my husband always asks "how do you know it's Braxton hicks and not really a contraction?"

Oh honey... cause those pills gave me a taste of the real deal.

Feralcrumpetart

Little Pills

pills andrea wagner GIF by Real Revenue Wives of GIPHYGiphy

Tylenol 3: constipation and everything being funny (flushing a toilet? Absolutely hilarious)

Ambien: I became a belligerent, angry, irrational, insomniac after 3 days.

Oberon777

Coded

Whenever I take coding, either cough syrup or Tylenol with codine, my brain just stops recording. I operate normally, act normally, but I have no memory. I have worked full shifts at work, exercised done everything normally but I have no memory of anything that takes place like 15 minutes after I ingest codine.

JoeTheBartender786

Relaxer

Baclofen, it's a muscle relaxer for everyone else but for me it gives me a super sense of smell. I'm not joking, my sense of smell gets so sensitive that I could probably put a blindfold on and navigate with smell alone.

I've asked anyone I know who's taken it and a few doctors - None of them have ever had or heard of anyone else having this side effect.

Xiao_Qinggui

Roided...

Couldn't achieve an orgasm thanks to Zoloft. It was great at first but then it just got really frustrating.

By far the worst is when I have to take a steroid. I'm pale so I burn easily in the sun but on steroids I burn when I look at a picture of the sun. Add to that I'm irritable, have an insatiable appetite, and there's a 50-50 chance I end up with a rash, which is beyond annoying because I take the steroids to help with a rash.

Papabearto2

Bugged Out

My mom gave me some sort of medicine for the flu when I was 4 which suddenly triggered hallucinations. I started seeing bugs everywhere, eating me, so I began screaming my lungs out. Apparently it was an allergic reaction.

Sadlycoris

Yellow Waterworks

Doctor Who Reaction GIFGiphy

I take a drug for my arthritis that turns my tears yellow. I feel terrible on it. Just started about 3 weeks ago.

serial_vapist049

Supplements Needed

I was having twitching and irregular heartbeats. My doctor prescribed me some vitamin D and folic acid supplements alongside a beta blocker.

I used those meds for 15 days and they cured my depression. Like 80 percent of it was gone. My mind was calm for the first time in a long time. That also made me realize that my depression was partly fatigue and nutritional deficiency that caused it to get so much worse. I started multivitamin and multimineral supplements afterwards and it has gotten so much easier now.

Snipsnapboi

Lost Limbs

Was doing a migraine treatment for a week and one of the things they gave me had me lose control of my Limbs. My arms and legs were twitching and randomly throwing themselves around, I also lost my vision... this month they will be doing a week long ketamine treatment for them, soo I'll get back to you on that.

BeerNcheesePlz

In this day and age, we know, we have to be our own advocates when it comes to out health. So never be afraid to ask why you should take what they tell you. Or at least do a little light reading before you throw it back.

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REDDIT

People Who Actually Died And Were Revived Share Their Experiences

"Reddit user AlaskaStiletto asked: 'Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?'"

Close up face of a woman in bed, staring into the camera
Photo by Jen Theodore

Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.

Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?

But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.

It would be so great to be sure there is something else.

But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.

Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:

"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"

Sensations

Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy

"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."

PeachesnPain

Recovery

"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."

"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."

"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."

good_golly99

Take Me Back

"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."

"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."

rayrayrayray

Free

The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy

"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."

TooReDTooHigh

This is why I hate surgery.

You just never know.

Shocked

Giphy

"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."

Admirable_Buyer6528

The SOB

"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."

"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”

1-cupcake-at-a-time

Colors

"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"

Hannah_LL7

"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"

huntokarrr

The Fog

"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."

"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."

Fluffy-Hotel-5184

Through the Walls

"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."

"She's quite alive and well today."

Hot-Refrigerator6583

Well let's all be happy to be alive.

It seems to be all we have.

Man's waist line
Santhosh Vaithiyanathan/Unsplash

Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.

The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.

Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.

Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:

"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"

Redditors didn't see these coming.

Shiver Me Timbers

"I’m always cold now!"

– Telrom_1

"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."

– r7ndom

"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."

– mr_remy

Drawing Concern

"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."

– dee-fondy

"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"

"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."

– LizardofDeath

Unleashing Insults

"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”

"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."

– alanamablamaspama

Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight

"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."

– KeltarCentauri

"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."

– KatMagic1977

"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."

– Jaew96

These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.

Shopping

"I can buy clothes in any store I want."

– WaySavvyD

"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."

– ganache98012

No More Symptoms

"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."

– colleennicole93

Expanding Capabilities

"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."

– Ramblonius

People Change Their Tune

"How much nicer people are to you."

"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"

– LiZZygsu

"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"

"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"

– awholedamngarden

It's gonna take some getting used to.

Bones Everywhere

"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."

– Princess-Pancake-97

"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."

– bekastrange

Knee Pillow

"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."

– snic2030

"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."

– Strongbad23

More Mobility

"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."

"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."

– dma1965

People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.

But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.

That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.

In 2017, I returned to my office after my lunch break to hear my supervisors discussing Tom Petty. This seemed like a random topic to me until one of my supervisors told me Tom Petty had passed away. He was a huge fan of Petty and spent the next hour or so combing through the internet to get more information.

He came back into the room my other supervisor and I were working in and announced that Tom Petty wasn't dead after all. News outlets had jumped the gun to announce his death, but he was actually still alive.

The next day, I came in to find out that Tom Petty was dead; the news may have been premature, but true.

This is a classic example of the rumor being started on the internet. Sometimes, like with the news of Tom Petty's death, the rumor can run wild and appear everywhere. Other times, the rumor can be seen by just a few people and dismissed. However, a lot of times, these rumors turn out to be true.

Redditors know a lot of internet rumors that turned out to be true, and are eager to share.

It all started when Redditor strakerak asked:

"What started out as an internet rumor that ended up being infamously true?"

The King Of Pop

"Michael Jackson writing the music for Sonic 3."

"He actually did, but was never credited on the game because it would breach his contract with his record label."

– -WigglyLine-

"He did the same when he appeared on The Simpsons. He appeared under a pseudonym, and the Producers said it was an impersonator."

"Only years later they confirmed it really was Michael."

"His singing voice was actually done by an impersonator, though."

– given2fly_

The Truth Comes Out

"In 1998, US Men’s National Team captain John Harkes was shockingly cut from the team right before the World Cup. The coach claimed it was because Harkes wouldn’t fit into his new preferred formation, but rumors flew on the early internet that it was actually because he had slept with his teammate Eric Wynalda’s wife. The rumor was so well-known in soccer circles that Harkes expressly denied it in his autobiography the next year."

"Fast forward 12 years to 2010 and Wynalda admits it’s true. The coach then came out and admitted it was why he dropped Harkes, but that he’d planned to keep the secret as long as Wynalda did."

– guyfromsoccer

Video Evidence

"The Tim Burton Hansel and Gretel that aired once on halloween in the 80's."

"I heard for years that it was fake but I knew it was real because my dad recorded everything in the 80s and he recorded that. We let a good friend of ours borrow it and switch it over from VHS to DVD and soon after that it made its way on to the internet , and there it is now. I know it's our copy because the tracking in the beginning is screwed up. Still have the VHS."

– Frozenthickness

"There was a similar story with a Nickelodeon movie called Cry Baby Lane. It was supposed to be so scary that Nickelodeon got complaints and denied its existence for years. Someone uploaded a taped copy to youtube about a decade ago."

– PattiAllen

The Movie Business

"That North Korea hacked Sony Pictures because of The Interview movie."

"I worked in the movie business at the time and the account managers at Sony all basically needed to get new identities as all of their personal information got leaked online."

OldMastodon5363

"My partner worked on that movie and the production bought all the crew 1 year of an identity theft tracking service."

CMV_Viremia

Keep Away From The Ears Of Kids

"Some banned episodes or scenes of cartoons."

"For example, I remember there was a Dexter’s Lab cartoon where he clones evil versions of DeDe and himself and they swear like every other word (censored of course), and people debated whether it even existed cause they only aired it like once. Now it’s pretty accessible online."

– Spledidlife

Yes, It's True

"Echelon, a massive electronic espionage system by the US and allies to intercept all electronic messages, especially emails."

"In the mid-nineties it was a topic on conspiracy BBS boards. A lot of people in my bubble at the time (mainly uni students in Europe) were including fake threats to the US in the their email signatures as a way to "protest" and "fill the system with false alarms" (obviously useless)."

"Then, in 1999-2000 came out to be true and a lot of security service agencies from UK and other US allies started to admit they were part of the espionage network."

– latflickr

How The Mighty Fell

"John Edward’s love child."

– ACam574

"A reminder that he was cheating on his wife while she was hospitalized for cancer treatment."

– Fanclock314

Ugh...

"Carrie Fisher's heart attack. Some a**hole who was on the same flight was livetweeting the whole medical emergency and justified it by insisting she was just making sure the family was informed."

– everylastlight

It Actually Happened

"Every year around her birthday there was a rumor that Betty White died. When I heard she died, I scoffed, saying that dumb rumor is back.... then saw it on the news. I was in shock."

– Known-Committee8679

"The fact that Betty died literally right before she turned 100 is such a Betty White way to go out."

– Paganigsegg

Big Actor, Small Roles

"I distinctly remember some rumors about the reason why Bruce Willis was taking so many roles in sh*tty movies before it was announced he has dementia."

– KampferMann

"RedLetterMedia did a deep dive on his recent movie activity to try and work out why exactly he was taking part in basically scam-movies. They noticed he had an earpiece in one of the scenes and joked that the director was feeding him lines. I remember they even disclaimed over the rumours at the time, and possible made a follow-up vid when it was revealed to the public."

– CardinalCreepia

What To Do Next?

"That the writer of LOST were making it up as they went."

"Turned out to be absolutely true."

– homarjr

That last one was kind of obvious!

Do you have any to add? Let us know in the comment below.